I am the Righteous
by chronicler-of-knuckles
Summary: Someone is out to make hackers pay for their crimes... with their lives! Just testin the waters, seeing if there's an audience for this idea.


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I am the Righteous

By The Chronicler

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_"Her name was Sarah Christina Long, born December 24th, 1999, 9:28am. _

_"My Christmas baby. _

_"Strawberry blond curls, emerald green eyes, chipmunk cheeks, and a smile wide and bright._

_"Murdered September 11th, 2007, 2:36pm._

_"Government hackers, out to bring down evil, evil terrorist, mistake a private jet with communication trouble for the next 9-11 attack. They hack the plane's computer and try to force it down. Instead, they slam it into a mountain top. _

_"But that's okay. All in the name of security, right?_

_"Don't you feel safe? _

_"Should you?_

_"Hackers, computer criminals, are protecting our country._

_"At what point does a country become so afraid that they give badges and license to crash little girls into mountains to criminals?_

_"The criminals are forgiven past crimes, given the full support of those originally sworn to take them down, and released upon the good citizens of the world all in the name of security!_

_"They rummage our files, our bank accounts, phone calls, shopping habits. They have our addresses, social security numbers, money, lives! They are in our cars, in our offices, in our planes. They tell us when to turn left, when to take our medicine, when to water our lawns._

_"The people who, yesterday, just yesterday, were the greatest threat to any single, free citizen, to their rights, to their lives…_

_"Now…_

_"Now, they are armed with badges, guns, and legal authority to destroy our lives… in the name of security._

_"It ends now. _

_"If the law is what we need protection from, then I will heed the call. I will go forth and challenge these legalized criminals, these internet terrorists. I will bring them to trial. I will see that justice is done. _

_"I will make sure that no one will ever lose their Christmas baby again._

_"I am Joseph Lucas Long._

_"I am the righteous!"_

The screen flashed black before returning to the home page which showed six pictures of missing computer techs from varies law enforcement organizations around the country. They were strapped in metal chairs in blank rooms, scarred, bloody, and weeping. The first four pictures were still shots. The last two were action, moving, supposedly live. Below each picture was a growing list of crimes supposedly committed by those in the picture.

"See? Did I tell you? That is one crazy son of a bitch." Garcia whistled. When everyone looked at her, she shrugged sheepishly. "In my expert opinion."

Reid was frowning. "Do we know if this is real?"

JJ started passing out the files. "We've identified nine victims, so far…"

"Nine?" Morgan looked at the screen again. "I count six."

"This is the third posting, six photos each." JJ explained.

"No one's moving on the other two. Not any more." Garcia added. "When the site was first e-mailed to me, there were just ten. I thought it was just a joke or something, but fella number twelve… I know him." She fiddled with the screen control. "Patty-cakes."

JJ opened one of the files and laid it on the table for all to see. "Shawn Patrick, a.k.a. Patty-cakes. Arrested for hacking military targeting systems in southern California."

Garcia chuckled, again earning everyone's attention. She shrugged. "He made sure they weren't armed."

"Patrick." JJ continued, throwing her friend a glare. "Served his time working for NCIS, doing, basically, what Garcia does for us."

"Just not as good."

"No one's as good, baby girl." Morgan offered, if for no other reason than to hush her.

But Garcia had more. "When I saw his pic come up, I gave him a call. His mom's reported him missing three days ago, but the local PD thinks he just skipped out. So I checked out some of the others and…" She glanced at JJ.

She tossed another open file on the table. "Kylla Hicks, National Guard, body discovered in Eureka, California." Another file. "Jasper Moore, NYPD, body found New Jersey." Another. "Mike Anderson, FBI, Reno Nevada. Rebecca McPhearson, DEA, Mendocino, California." One by one, from across the country and back again, she named the nine found.

Morgan shook his head. "So, why hasn't anybody started waving some frantic flag? I mean we're talking about cops here. Or close enough."

"Not cops." Hotchner corrected, as he flipped through the files. "Hackers. Each one pressed into service for past crimes."

"Like Garcia." Reid pointed out.

"Thank you!" Their computer tech snatched a pen and threw it at him. "Thank you very much! Like I wasn't freaking out before."

Reid ducked, the pen hitting Hotch instead.

Garcia winced.

Sighing, the lead agent picked the pen up and, rather pointedly, set it down in the center of the table.

Ignoring the whole incident, Emily asked "Can we trace the signal? Find out where the site's coming from?"

Garcia shook her head. "Been going around in circles. He's bouncing it all over the world. Whoever this guy is, he's got one hell of a hacker on his side."

"Using a hacker to catch hackers." Rossi observed. Leaning back in his seat, he scratched his chin, thinking. Then he asked "Did Patrick disappear from California?"

"Yes." Garcia answered before JJ could. "Patty-cakes has been hanging in S.F. for a couple of years now. He lived in his mom's basement. Yea, I know… typical geek. He even had the whole Star Wars figurine thing going and all."

Reid dug through the files. "Five of these are from California." Then he shook his head. "But four are from other states, nothing in their files indicate anything dealing with California."

"California's a big state. And he's all over it. Could be nothing there." Hotchner pointed out. "What about Joseph Long? What do we know about him?"

"Considering he gave us his name, his daughter's name and age and time of death…" JJ shrugged. "Not much. There is a reported plane crash on said date, owned by Oregon Acers. The report says six people were killed, but there are no names given. And Oregon Acers give no comment beyond not knowing who Long is. He could have given a fake name."

"Garcia, anything your magic revealed?" Morgan asked.

The woman shook her head. "Not yet. It's almost like the whole things been cleaned." She shook a finger at him. "But no one's that good. I just have to…" She paused, throwing a wary glance at Hotch. "Be creative?"

Hotch frowned his most disapproving frown, though it was more to cover up his own amusement.

After all, their Penelope Garcia was a hacker.

But then he looked to JJ. "Have we been asked to look in on this?" he wondered, knowing what they could do was limited by rules and regulations and jurisdictions.

The woman started to shake her head, but Garcia jumped in. "I asked!" She looked at each of them in turn. "This bastards going after my friends! People like me! Anyone with a MP-3 player has a little hacker in them. There's not a computer geek out there that hasn't hacked a song or a pic or something harmless like that."

"Military targeting systems are not harmless." Rossi pointed out.

"We're curious. That's all." She spread her hands, pleading with them. "Curiosity shouldn't mark us for death."

Hotch held up a hand, silencing her. "Garcia, I'm not saying we won't take a look. I'm just saying we need to go through the proper channels." He paused, giving her a chance to accept what he said. When she didn't protest, he turned to JJ again. "JJ, do some inquires. See if anyone is open to inviting a little help. In the very least, they should be made aware that there's a connection." He turned to the rest of his team. "In the meantime, lets find out what we can about Long and his daughter. And this website. He has to post it from somewhere."

"And find out what we can about those people." Rossi added. "Let's make sure what we're dealing with before we pull out the serial killer card. Long could have very well hacked their pictures."

Morgan leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Hackers hacking hackers hacking hackers." He looked around with a crocked smile. "Anyone else dizzy?"

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